Arctic disasters, rogue whales, ambush by Confederate ships--the true saga of one captain's struggle to survive the demise of the Yankee whaling fleet

It's the mid-ninteenth century and the American whaling fleet is struck by one hammer blow after the other. Yankee whalers are contending with icebergs, storms, rogue whales, sharks, hostile natives, and disease. Many whalers give up the life--but some carry on the vocation. One such man is a captain from Connecticut, Thomas William Williams. Not only does he go out on voyage after voyage, he even takes on board with him his...